


Gifts

by RingingSilence



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Genre: Holidays on Yavin 4, Minor alcohol warning, Not all presents need a bow
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-25
Updated: 2016-12-25
Packaged: 2018-09-12 03:49:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 716
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9054013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RingingSilence/pseuds/RingingSilence
Summary: When the Alliance celebrates the holidays, Jyn and Cassian find their own gift for each other.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I just felt like doing something quiet for Christmas. Unedited, so there's probably some errors ^^,

The base wasn’t any warmer or less drab, but that didn’t stop the warm rumble of voices in the hangar from making it seem brighter. It was stupid, honestly; the Empire could be lurking just off-planet, sights set on their base as the energy of their merry-making gave away the location rebels had died to keep safe.

Maybe Jyn was too much of a realist.

After a solar cycle of struggling against the Empire, an uphill battle that left more rebels dead than ground gained, the rest of the Alliance was embracing the holiday with zeal. There was too much food, too much laughter, too much everything as they tried to forget their tension if only for a day and live. It would have risked notice to pull down a tree, so someone had strung up one of the carriers in landing lights and empty bottles. There was laughing, story-trading, comparing of battle-scars…

And gift-giving.

Trinkets and tools and memorabilia plucked in spare moments from markets and smugglers throughout the galaxy were changing hands, little symbols of camaraderie that made Jyn put-off and jealous all at once. It had been years since she had paid the holiday any mind, much less spent the resources to snag a gift and with everything that had happened recently she just hadn’t had the stomach for it. There was only one person in the base that she might have wanted to get something for anyway, but Force if she didn’t have the heart to even try to celebrate.

Instead, she lingered at the edge of the gathering as long as she could bear for appearance’s sake before slipping away to the landing strip outside the temple. She passed a few rebels on her way out, members too heartsick the way she was to join the party and they exchanged brief nods before returning to their sulking. Perhaps these moments of quiet to allow themselves to just _breathe_ were their own version of celebrating.

There was a sharp edge to the air outside, a tension that’s silence held the promise of snow and as she took a seat on an abandoned crate she squinted up at the clouds and counted how long she could hold her breath before it escaped in a puff of frost. A breath for her mother. A breath for Saul. A long stream of smoke for the life she might have had with either one of them.

She couldn’t laugh and smile for them yet, but maybe just sitting and remembering them was good enough for the moment.

There was the thumping of heavy boots and she glanced over as Cassian perched himself on the other corner of her crate, releasing his own puff of smoke into the frigid night. Neither of them said a word as he sat back, eyes on the clouds between them and the vastness of the stars beyond. She’d felt comfortable with her choice to not buy or steal anything for him before, but now with him barely two feet away…but what could she do about that now? All she had to give were some extra charges for a blaster and a half-empty flask of lukewarm water in her coat pocket. Nothing with any value, nothing personal to show how she felt to still be fighting beside him.

She was startled from her thoughts by a sharp hiss and she turned to see he’d popped open a bottle, probably snagged from the party when no one was looking. He took a quick swig of the bottle’s contents, eyes tightening before he held it out to her. Jyn stared until he turned from the sky to raise an eyebrow and twitch the bottle meaningfully, something like a smile twitching up the corner of his mouth when she reached out to take it.

The cheap alcohol burned all the way down and she resisted the urge to cough as she glanced at the worn label. Cassian briefly met her questioning gaze before settling back on his hands with a contented sigh to watch the first flakes begin drifting towards them. Jyn slowly let her gaze return to the bottle, then threw back another bitter sip and set it down between them. Neither said a word as the world seemed to hold its breath.


End file.
